American Airlines is by far the WORST carrier for getting you to your destination on time

The next time you need to catch a flight, you may want to
reconsider taking that seat on American Airlines.

According to a new report from the U.S. Transportation Department, the country's fourth largest airline experiences by far the most delays of any U.S.-based carrier. The report determined that only 58 per cent of American Airlines
flights arrived on time in September 2012.

In comparison, nearly 90 per cent of Delta and 87 per cent of U.S. Airways flights reached their destination on time. Meanwhile, the second least punctual carrier, Express Jet Airlines, still managed to land 81 per cent of their flights without delay.

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God awful: American Airlines was the absolute worst carrier at getting passengers to their destination on time

WHICH AIRLINES SHOULD YOU TRUST?

Percentage of flights arriving on time by major airline

1. Delta Airlines, 89.7%

2. U.S. Airways, 87.3%

3. Southwest Airlines, 86.5%

4. Virgin American, 85.3%

5. Jet Blue, 82.8%

6. United Airlines, 82%

**American Airlines, 58%

American Airlines awful numbers have helped drag down the total number of U.S. flights operating on time. According to the same study, 83.3 per cent of all flights managed to arrive on time in September 2012, down from 83.9 per cent just one year earlier.

The carrier did add, however, that no domestic flights were left on the ground for more than three hours, and no international flight was left for more than four hours, after the government threatened to impose fines last year on excessively delayed flights.

Instead, the airline usually elected to just cancel the flight altogether, which explains why American Airlines also sported the highest cancellation rate of any other carrier.

This year, it cut about 3.1 per cent or 1,304 of their flights. No other major carrier had more than a 1 per cent cancellation rate. In fact, American Airlines accounted for one-third of all cancellations in September.

Shocking: Only 58 per cent of American Airlines flights reached their destination on time

Since filing for bankruptcy in November of last year, American Airlines has experienced all sorts of problems. Angered over pay cuts, employees have lashed out at the companies, while blunders, such as having to ground 48 planes after spilled soda caused chairs to become loose, have left the company in a P.R. nightmare.

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For their part, American Airlines has blamed the massive
delays on disgruntled pilots, who they said slowed down their work to
express their displeasure over the company cutting pay and benefits
earlier this year.

Blame game: For its part, American Airlines is blaming disgruntled pilots for the massive delays.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Department study revealed some other interesting facts about the airline industry. For instance, passengers reported a slightly lower rate of lost or mishandled baggage than last year.

Out of the major airlines, Jet Blue, Delta and United were the bast and handling luggage, while Southwest was the worst. Between January and September of this year, Southwest lost or mishandled more than 250,000 bags, which shakes out to about three for every 1,000 passengers.

The study also found that the chances of getting bumped from a flight increased 38 per cent from July through September compared to the same period last year. Still you odds of being bumped were rare, with it happening to only about one in 10,000 passengers.

Consumer complaints also increased slightly, although few travelers overall chose to lodge formal complaints. If they did, however, they were most likely against United and American and least likely against
Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines.